Thor's Hammer POV
by Tuch
Summary: “Thor’s Hammer” from Jack’s POV. All the dialogue within is from the episode. This is a short story version of the firstseason episode, expanded to explore Jack's thoughts on the episode's events.


POV: Thor's Hammer

Summary: "Thor's Hammer" from Jack's POV. All the dialogue within is from the episode. This is a short story version of the first-season episode, expanded to explore Jack's thoughts on the episode's events.

Genre: Adventure/Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own them. I wish I did. I would be nicer to them.

Notes: Feedback is welcome.

Jack's eyes glazed over as Daniel completely failed to get to the point of his briefing. Goa'ulds, Vikings, blah, blah, blah. Even Teal'c looked bored, and Jack was convinced he was going to make general before this lecture ended. Only Carter seemed remotely interested in the words spilling out of their linguist's mouth. Jack knew the subject was important; if the Goa'uld had enemies out there who could pack a punch, they needed to find them yesterday. Still, Jack made a mental note to teach the kid how to summarize.

Yet it was hard to be annoyed with Daniel when he was looking so darned pleased with himself. This was what his friend lived for, and Daniel found it impossible to understand why everyone else wasn't drooling with glee the way he was. Finally, Jack couldn't take it anymore and rapidly brought Daniel to his finale, which was that they needed to find Thor and his hammer-throwing friends. Teal'c, who had been sitting quietly, as Teal'c was wont to do, came through in the clutch with a Gate address, and Jack did a mental fist pump. It looked as if they had a mission.

A few hours later, Jack, Carter and Teal'c were waiting in the embarkation room for the Gate to open. Hammond handed him a box, but before he could get a good look at it, Daniel plucked it from his hands like an overeager second-grader. Great. He'd put together a little welcoming gift for their potential new allies. Jack watched the archeologist pack the box with the rest of their gear, handling it like precious cargo, and he wondered if he'd have to give Daniel a sedative before the mission began. He was bouncing around like a crack monkey, but, again, Jack was more amused than annoyed. He and Carter stood by, watching him like proud parents living vicariously through their child. Secretly, Jack enjoyed Daniel's enthusiasm. It was entirely unbecoming a wiseass, acerbic colonel like himself to be jumping around like a kid on a school trip, but Daniel had a pass because Daniel was...Daniel.

Well, this was unexpected. Jack was used to a variety of reactions from the local populations. A lot of the time people thought they were gods. Too often people thought they were target practice. He wasn't used to mocking laughter, and frankly, it irked.

"This is...different," Daniel said, voicing Jack's thoughts. The colonel gestured toward the long-haired Vikings of mirth. "Daniel, you're on."

Daniel's job was to talk to the people. Jack's job was to make stupid jokes and get them home alive. It was times like this that he really preferred it that way. But before Daniel could work his magic, the men started chanting "Thor" over and over, and the large structure before them charged up like a super-powered generator. He ordered Daniel to dial home, but a blue light caught their attention. It passed through Daniel, then Carter, then Jack, and finally stopped on Teal'c. The beam enveloped Teal'c, and the Jaffa let loose a deep groan of pain. Jack didn't have time to think--just act. He jumped on Teal'c to push him out of the way, and a moment later they both disappeared.

It was dark. And cold. And damp. Jack blinked once to clear his vision, then jumped to his feet.

"Teal'c?" he called. The Jaffa, on the ground next to him, rose and tore open his shirt. Junior peeked its snaky little head into the world and gave a screech of supreme annoyance. Christ, how Jack hated those things. He preferred not to think about the fact that SG-1 was actually a team of five.

He'd barely finished making sure Teal'c was OK when another flash of light caught his attention. An excessively large man in Viking garb introduced himself as Thor, supreme commander of the Asgard fleet, and Jack did his best to stifle his surprise. The guy looked like something out of a badly drawn comic book. Thor launched into a long speech that would have made Daniel proud, essentially telling them the Goa'uld were scum and were going to die. Under different circumstances Jack would have agreed heartily and bought the guy a beer, or an ale, or whatever drink Vikings used to get shit-faced, but Thor seemed to be under the impression that Jack and Teal'c were Goa'ulds, and he was content to let them rot there. It took a few minutes for Jack to realize that they'd gotten the Asgard voice mail system. Leave a message and we'll get right back to you...when hell freezes over, Jack thought. Still, he had to admire Asgard ingenuity.

The message ended, and the two of them, following Thor's instructions, set off for the Hall of Mohair. Or something. Not surprisingly, Teal'c offered to stay behind to give him the opportunity to leave, and Jack quickly shot him down. They both left or nobody left. That was just the way it was, and Teal'c would have to get used to it.

A few hours later, they came upon a pool of standing water. It smelled like many, many dead things had made their home in its depths. His suspicions were confirmed when they discovered human skeletal remains jutting out of the pond. Whoever it was had died as a tasty treat for something much bigger, and Jack swallowed hard in disgust. The only word to describe it was "ewwww."

After a few more hours of fairly aimless wandering, they stumbled into an open room carved from stone. It was hardly comfortable, but at least it didn't smell like rotting meat. Jack decided to test a theory.

"Teal'c," he said, pointing to the ceiling. "Take a shot at that lamp with your staff weapon."

Teal'c pressed the trigger on the weapon a couple of times and was rewarded with a big, fat nothing. "It will not function," he said.

"Yeah, that's what he said would happen as long as we're in here." Jack aimed and opened fire. The lamp shattered and crashed to the ground, and Jack breathed a small sigh of relief. At least they wouldn't have to resort to firing spitballs at whatever was making the labyrinth its home.

"This race may have considered projectile weapons too primitive to be concerned about," Teal'c speculated. A good thing, too, Jack thought, because he was feeling more primitive than usual. He handed his sidearm to his friend and took a seat near the wall.

"The message said only the host could leave this place alive," Teal'c said.

"Right."

"Perhaps this could be of some benefit to the boy who was your friend."

"Skaara. Yeah, I thought of that." He'd been thinking about that for a while, in fact.

"And the wife of Daniel Jackson," Teal'c continued. "Perhaps if they could be brought here, the Goa'uld who took them as hosts could be purged."

Jack had thought of that, too, and he was sure Daniel was thinking the same thing even as he and Carter looked for their missing teammates. At least, he hoped they were looking for them. He hadn't seen what had happened to his friends after the glowy thing made off with him and Teal'c. The villagers could have carted them off for some kind of ritual sacrifice for all he knew. He tried to put the thought out of his head. The men at the Gate hadn't seemed violent, just obnoxious, and if Daniel couldn't talk his way out of trouble, he was confident his second in command would shred the opposition. She was good like that.

"Maybe," Jack said, but he had a bad feeling about this. Teal'c sounded optimistic, but the voice of doom in Jack's head told him it wouldn't be that easy. He could dream about freeing Skaara all he wanted, but the truth was that the Goa'uld-killer was standing between Teal'c and freedom. While he disliked the idea of breaking Daniel's heart, he disliked the idea of leaving Teal'c there to die even more. But there was no point in being a pre-emptive party pooper, so he let it drop.

Jack was about to suggest that they move on when something triggered his internal warning alarm, and he jumped to his feet, gun at the ready. Teal'c hadn't heard anything, and Jack wondered for a moment if paranoia was creeping in. He shook it off, and they continued on their way through the labyrinth. It wasn't long before they came to a room with dripping water. It was a small room, and the water wasn't exactly Evian's finest, but it looked clean. Jack wished he could speed up erosion so they could finally get the hell out of there. He'd had more than enough of Thor's little time-out corner.

Then he noticed the shadow. It was like something out of a child's nightmare, and it was coming right at them. It stepped into the light, and Jack's stomach tightened. Nothing had a right to be that ugly.

"Jaffa," it said. "I am Unas. The First One."

Teal'c stalked toward it slowly, and Jack felt the knot in his stomach do summersaults. When T was unnerved, it had to be bad.

"You. Do not. Exist," the Jaffa said, enunciating carefully.

"Kill the human," the big, lizard-like creature ordered.

"Excuse me?" Jack said. This was no way to begin a friendship. He suspected tall, dark and scaly was responsible for the bones in the water. If Daniel were here, Jack thought, he would probably try to make friends with it.

The Unas continued, "And we will feast together."

Teal'c stood tall. "I no longer serve the Goa'uld," he said. The Unas looked annoyed, or angry, or maybe he just had gas. It was hard to decipher facial expressions on a mutant iguana.

A few more meaningless words were exchanged, and the Unas attacked. Jack was prepared and fired a few rounds into the creature. It struggled briefly, tossed Teal'c to the ground, then slumped lifelessly against the stone wall. So much for feasting. Teal'c announced shakily that the First One was dead, and the pair continued on their way through the labyrinth.

Hours later, Jack finally admitted to himself that he'd had enough of this crap. Thor's intentions had been good, and he could certainly understand wanting to trap the Goa'uld in the deepest, darkest pit he could find, but he wanted out of there. Now. He wanted to retrieve the rest of his team, salvage the mission if he could, then get himself a hot shower and a good meal, in that order, before crashing for at least ten hours. He was also missing The Simpsons, Teal'c's ghost story about the Unas was no substitute. Especially when the not-dead Unas began roaring. It was clearly pissed off, and Jack wished they HAD gone back to drive a stake through its heart.

Damn, all of these tunnels looked the same. One of these days he was going to find Thor and beat the crap out of him. He didn't care if the Asgard WAS a Viking twice his size. But he had only a moment to ponder Thor's fate before the Unas popped out from the shadows. How did something that big hide, anyway?

"Your weapons can not kill me," it taunted. "I know the secrets of the labyrinth." It waved its hands for emphasis, and Jack decided that theatrics must be trait inherent to all Goa'uld. And here was the First Drama Queen himself.

"I could help you escape," it offered. Yeah, right, Jack thought. If the thing could escape it would have done so about a thousand years ago.

"A map would be nice," Jack quipped. Then he pumped his highness with enough hot lead to kill half a dozen men. Teal'c fired off a few rounds from his pistol, and together they looked as if they'd fallen into a buddy cop movie. The Unas disappeared into the shadows once more, and Jack and Teal's hauled ass deeper into the tunnel. As they ran, Jack decided that he really, really hated the Unas. If only they would stay dead.

Right. Left. Left. Right. Eventually they found themselves in a large room. Its main feature was an ornate archway, and Jack, to his relief and delight, found a doorway at the end.

"This is it!" he shouted to Teal'c. "We're outta here. Let's go." Teal'c took two steps toward the open door, and a forcefield of orange light captured him in the archway. Jack's relief turned to horror as his friend grimaced in pain, unable to free himself from the Asgard flypaper.

"Teal'c, get outta there!" he yelled. Which was stupid, he acknowledged, because he doubted Teal'c was hanging out in there for kicks. If he could extricate himself, he would. Jack briefly considered his options, but Teal'c's agonized scream made the decision for him. He launched himself through the archway and pushed his friend backward, free of the Goa'uld-killing forcefield.

"Thank you, O'Neill," Teal'c said stoically once he'd pulled himself to his feet.

"Yeah," Jack replied, but there was no time for congratulations, because the Unas was still on them like some kind of horror movie that wouldn't end.

"Are you considering the same tactic as I?" Teal'c asked, and Jack would have laughed if they weren't about to become lizard lunch.

"Teal'c, the cliche is 'are you thinking what I'm thinking,'" Jack replied, "and the answer is 'yes.'"

The Unas glared at him menacingly, which was pretty much the only expression it seemed capable of. "Human, you can save yourself. Why do you stay?" Jack considered launching into some kind of Star Trek crap about the meaning of honor and friendship, but he realized he didn't care enough to bother.

"Jaffa," the creature continued, turning its attention and flamboyant hand gestures to Teal'c. "Why do you ally yourself with a slave?" It stepped into the light, and for crying out loud was that thing ugly. Jack didn't even want to know what female Unas looked like. It made another threatening speech, and Jack decided this Goa'uld was just as tiresome as the human variety. But before he had a chance to say as much, the Unas attacked. Jack hit the wall like a handball, and the next few minutes passed in a blur that ended with the Unas and Teal'c trapped in the orange glow of Goa'uldy doom.

Jack shouted Teal'c's name, willing him to get the hell out of there, but Teal'c replied that there was no other way as he held the Unas in the deadly forcefield. Jack decided, when this was over, he really needed to do something about this self-sacrifice thing his friend had going on. But first he had to, once again, pull him free. The Unas screamed and writhed with the death throes of a wild animal and collapsed to the ground. When he was still, the forcefield vanished. Jack was so relieved that the thing was finally dead--for real, this time, he hoped--that he didn't even register his friends and the dark-haired woman step through the arch. Carter introduced the woman as Kendra.

"She had first-hand knowledge. She was a...Goa'uld," Daniel explained. Jack didn't need to see the Jaffa's face to know that his eyebrows were reaching new heights.

Jack noted Daniel's hopeful expression, and the dull ache he'd felt earlier during his conversation with Teal'c returned bigger and badder than before. Daniel would fight to preserve the alien technology, but that wasn't going to happen, because that would mean Teal'c would have to stay. He just wished he didn't have to be the one to crush Daniel's first legitimate hope of freeing his wife.

"The Hammer works," the archeologist said, pointing to the structure. Jack wanted to crawl into a deep, dark hole so he wouldn't have to do this. The faith in Daniel's big blue eyes was going to kill him. Please, Danny, don't make me spell this out, he thought.

"Do you know what this means?" Daniel asked.

Yeah, Jack was afraid he did. "It's the only way out of here, Daniel," he said softly.

"But what this thing can do for Shau'ri and Skaara--"

"Teal'c's here now," interrupted Jack, and tendrils of fear wrapped themselves around his throat. He wasn't going to leave Teal'c behind, no matter what Daniel said, but he desperately needed his friend to be on board with his decision. If he wasn't, then SG-1 was finished. He would have saved Teal'c and lost Daniel.

Teal's spoke up. "And here I will remain. I was with those who took the ones you love."

"No," Jack replied with authority. "You're part of this family now. We're not leaving you behind." A few seconds of tense silence ticked by before Jack handed Daniel the staff weapon.

"This thing won't work in here," he said. "Try it from out there." Daniel took the weapon reluctantly, and Jack winced at the grief and resentment in his friend's eyes. He could have ordered Carter to destroy the Hammer, or even done it himself, but he knew it had to be Daniel. They all needed to know where Daniel stood, and as the other man walked through the archway toward the door, one thought pounded in Jack's head: Please, Daniel, be the man I know you are.

Daniel pointed the staff weapon at the Hammer, clutching it and unclutching it, indecision making his hands shake.

"C'mon," Jack whispered, as if he could give his friend the strength to make the right call. Jack's heart beat loudly in his chest as he watched the war beneath Daniel's glasses play out. Finally, after a brutally long moment, Daniel fired.

Yes! Jack thought. Yeah, Daniel! He let go of a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. He was so proud of Daniel he wanted to sing and do a little jig, but he settled for a subtle nod. See, he could do the stoic thing.

Carter asked, "Did it work?"

"There's one way to find out."

Teal'c hesitated by the archway, then stepped through carefully. No orange glow trapped him within, and he passed through freely. Another problem solved.

The Jaffa thanked Daniel solemnly and retrieved his staff. The magnitude of what Daniel had done was not lost on him, and he seemed humbled.

"Well, at least we know it can be done, right?" Daniel said, looking between Jack and Teal'c. Jack guessed he was trying to console himself more than find reassurance from his friends, and Jack felt like a bastard, but a relieved bastard.

Daniel was quiet on the long walk back to the Gate. Jack could almost see the thoughts whirling around his friend's head, the what-ifs, and he wondered if Daniel was regretting his decision. Jack definitely wanted to have a chat with him, but he wasn't about to raise the issue in front of Teal'c, Carter and their new friend. That was a chat best had over beer and hockey. He was sure Daniel's conscience would agree that it was the best decision, even if his heart was kicking his ass for it. Teal'c kept a respectful distance in the rear, and Jack spied Carter alternating concerned glances between Daniel and Teal'c. And people said he was a mother hen. Then he remembered his own words. They were family. Carter cared as much as he did.

When they finally got back to the Stargate, Kendra gave them a gentle smile. "I want to thank you for helping me have the courage to face my greatest fears." She was talking to all of them, but she was looking at Daniel and Carter. Then she pulled a rock from her bag and handed it to Daniel. "This is to remember our world."

"Thank you," Daniel said sincerely.

Teal'c said, "We will never forget," and her smile faded, but she nodded in acceptance. Jack wondered if maybe this mission wasn't such a wash after all. They didn't find any cool new toys, but they didn't make any new enemies, either. More importantly, he was more sure of his team than ever.

"And we'd like to come back," Carter said.

"Oh!" Daniel's face lit up with enthusiasm and he bounced back to the FRED. "I almost forgot." Seconds later, he returned with the box he'd packed so carefully at the start of their mission. Jack smiled inwardly. Daniel was being Daniel again, and in this case it was a good thing.

Daniel handed the box to Kendra. "Here, it's a gift. Actually, it's for Thor or his people, in case they ever come back. It's all about our people, who we are, that we would like to be friends." Kendra smiled. Thunder rolled across the overcast sky and she looked up happily. "Thor is pleased," she said.

Even Jack felt himself caught up in the good mood. "That's great," he said. "Tell him we'd love to meet him someday. In person." And maybe Daniel could patch things up after Jack kicked Thor's Viking ass. A world of emotion passed across his friend's expressive face. Oh, yeah. They would definitely have that chat.

"It is safe for you to travel," Kendra told them. "You should go now." Jack didn't need to be told twice.

"Daniel? You want to start dialing home? Before it starts raining?"

Daniel started up the dialing sequence, and SG-1 waited for the wormhole to kawoosh open. Jack supposed there was a more technical term for it, but he was fond of "kawoosh" and decided to stick with it.

With his team in front of him, Jack stepped back into the wormhole ready to report to Hammond that their mission had been accomplished.


End file.
